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Rick Santorum clings to team of pals

The core of Santorum’s team is much the same as it was six months ago. | AP Photo

“I almost feel like with [Santorum], he’s their only messenger. … They need to add more brains to the operation and more high-level people — people that have run a U.S. Senate campaign, people who have worked at one of the party committees,” the Republican said. “Feb. 7 [when Santorum won three primaries and caucuses] provided them an opportunity to address some of these problems. Right now, this period in the race does the same thing.”

There’s a blueprint for exactly that kind of expansion. In the 2008 cycle, Mike Huckabee padded his upstart bid as soon as it began to gain ground, bringing on veteran Republican strategist Ed Rollins as his campaign chairman and recruiting former Reagan and George H.W. Bush aide Jim Pinkerton as a senior adviser.

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Santorum, on the other hand, has added to his staff only in the most instrumental of ways, hiring a new national press secretary, a delegate counter and filling a number of other operational posts.

Part of that, said Santorum communications director Hogan Gidley, is simply a matter of the candidate’s preferences. When it comes to the counsel he takes, Santorum evidently sticks to a familiar set of voices.

“The campaign mirrors the candidate, and Rick is very well-organized, but he doesn’t have a big circle. He has a tight circle,” Gidley said. “He’s a good manager because he’s not a micro-manager. But we do run things by him. It’s a small enough staff that we can do this.”

The fact that the campaign is now playing out across 50 states, rather than the three early battlegrounds Santorum’s effort was built for, is a double-edged challenge.

On one level, Romney’s structural and financial advantages loom ever larger as the race moves into places where the GOP hopefuls cannot run a months-long, hand-shaking, Santorum-style retail campaign. On the other hand, it means that national-level messaging can have a disproportionate impact in states like Alabama and Mississippi, two states voting on Tuesday in which no candidate has been able to build up a daunting organizational edge.

“I think the ground game is important in a lot of ways,” said Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks, who is neutral in the presidential primary. “But no candidate has an overwhelming ground game or could be expected to have an overwhelming ground game, given their limited time, their limited resources and the fact that they’re covering the entire United States.”

Well roosterpack that's what Obama's MSM Super Wolf Pacs have been trying to do for quite a while now, block Mitt Romney, from your hero Barack Obama. But's its way too late for that.

And its way too late for either Gingrich or Santorum to put together a robust organization to beat Obama plus they're both badly flawed candidates who have the ability to win the GOP primary but ZERO chance to beat Obama..

If Mitt Romney wins in either Alabama or Mississippi tomorrow this primary race is OVER. That's the "expectations" game for Tuesday night..........btw Alabama is next to Gingrich's HOME state of Georgia:

PPP Polling: Romney with 1 Point lead in ALABAMA

GOP Nomination:

Mitt Romney 31%

Newt Gingrich 30%

Rick Santorum 29%

Ron Paul 8%

PPP surveyed 600 likely Republican primary voters in Alabama on March 10th and 11th. The MOE is +/-4.0%.

The crosstabs can be viewed HERE.

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Rick Santorum fosters a misguided attack on Individual Freedoms. A Theocratic-Dominionism Government may be what his team thinks is inside the regular Republican-Base; yet, Santorum would have me believe that such stretches as the "Ultrasound Bills" are "protecting 1st Amendment -BUT- these Bills "Take 1st Amendment Rights FROM Women & Give those Rights to Institutional-Churches."

Think, the Church now decides what You & Your Doctor once decided. Oh, it's Ok if you and your Church agree but what if your wife has a cyst & her Doc prescribes the same pill that your Church calls a "Contraceptive / Birth Control Pill" - no, Your wife's not using it for that but she nor you have an option anymore= The Bill says The Church is in Charge of All Healthcare Procedures (ie Rome makes your decision, even if it is suicide to not take the medicine)

Make it plain = 1st Amendment is there as YOUR Individual & Personal protection against our Nation passing any law that puts You Below any Corporation or Church (even 'tho you may choose to give this Freedom to Your Church but many other Individual Citizens may not choose Church over Freedom)

Voters may do well to at least give this latest Republican Grab For Control Over Your Life some thought, ask those for whom you had planned to vote, "Where does Constitution make Corporations (like Insurance Companies, or your Boss at work) or where does Constitution make Church Doctrine weigh more than your Freedom?"

#2 Why is Santorum "flip-flopping" on conservative ideas? Did he forget the "Mandate"IS a Republican Idea, pushed for years by all GOP Candidates (excld Dr. Paul.)

#3 There is a "Debt Increase" in Santorum's Tax-code reform, No "Small Government" w/Santorum-vote.

#4 Santorum- Yes, Cut Bottom, Give to Up

#5 Santorum tack-back to anold Catholic-war-footing & bashes Baptists as not a "Bible Theology" = (Obama's a Baptist & so are many Southern Women)

Santorum is a liar and he deceptively omits portions of other's statements to make himself look superior.

lol..............Both Snakeorum and Gingrich sound more and more like David Axelrod and the DNC both have adopted their talking points, sadly. And of course any information coming from Axelrod or the DNC is usually a lie.

The reason why Obama's Brown-shirts in his MSM Super Wolf Pac press is after Mitt is because of this, real information:

If Mitt Romney wins in either Alabama or Mississippi tomorrow this primary race is OVER. That's the "expectations" game for Tuesday night.........

It was over before it started........... but the right wing of the GOP doesn't understand that................

They think they are permitted to pick the nominee..............

The reality is that the big money in the GOP has the ability to steer the nomination in the direction of their choice, and that has thwarted repeated attempts by the right to block MITT"s nomination....................

Bachmann, Perry, Cain, Gingrich, and Santorum have all had their moments leading the pack........... but in Iowa, Florida, MIchigan and Ohio, the power of MITT's super pac dollars did them in (well, in Iowa it almost did)...............

And you'll see that again in Illinois, even if Santorum or Gingrich manages to eke out wins in AL and MS...........

If I had to chose between Rick Santorum and Franklin Graham, why not Franklin Graham? He is the "true" born again Christian. Catholics don't want Santorum, so why is he targeting the born again Christians? I remember the days when Catholics and Evangelicals wouldn't even speak to one another.

The never ending debates did it for me. After listening to and reading about them, I came to the conclusion that the more I knew about the Republican candidates, the more I liked Obama.

So at this point, I really do not care which of the remaining candidates wins the Republican nomination, I will vote for Obama.

We have a tremendous national debt and I saw everyone of the candidates say they would not raise taxes. I have news for them, there is no way we can pay that debt down without new revenue and we have to begin working on it again. Cutting spending will not balance the budget and without new revenue, the debt will keep growing. Buffett is right, listen to him instead of making fun of him.

We have been at war too long and already, Republican candidates are calling for war with Iran. If we go to war with Iran, how long will we be there? Another ten years? Obama is right, war is not a game. Obama has gotten us out of Iraq and is trying to get us out of Afghanistan. Bring our troops home.

I do not care what religion a person has but I do care if they try to control women with their beliefs. How anyone can be against birth control rights, within legislation, I have no clue. Any insurance policy that provides birth control is less expensive than a policy that does not have it. That is a fact, so the people who cry out, "Why should my taxes provide birth control?" need to understand that not providing it cost more money. So I agree with the administration on this and so do most Catholics.

The Catholic Church leadership is out of step with its members and so is the Republican party and its presidential candidates.

I could go on-and-on but my point has been made. I believe the Republican party is out of step with the nation. For me, this is sad, most of my adult life, I was a Republican and I actually worked in both of Reagan's campaigns. How my party got so out of align with the nation, I do not understand.

What exactly is it that you like about Obie's record? Is it the 9.1% (Gallup's #) unemployment or $4 a gallon gasoline, or the $5 trillion in debt he's accumulated, or the loss of America's AAA credit rating and on and on? You're either delusional or a Soros-paid troll..either way Obie is going down in November.

Santorum and his aides do not want to change their campaign structure. Santorum suffers from a "Messiah Complex, Christ Complex, or Savior Complex." He believes he is destined, with God's guiding hand to lead America to the kind of Christian kingdom God intended; therefore, Santorum and his staff do not have to worry about a complex, competent, and rapid campaign that meets the challenges of today's presidential campaigning.

Santorum wants to go to war with Iran, give more money away to the 1%, limit women's health care choices according to his fundamentalist religion. . . No thanks. I do hope he wins the nomination, though, because the extreme right wing needs a wake up call, and I think a landslide defeat for Santorum would deliver that. It's the year 2012, we don't need a re-hash of Bush's economics, more war, or someone who believes the world is only 6,000 years old.

Ho Hum. I thought the article meant Rick was going to develop a slapstick style of comedy to go with his slap-dash campaigning. Mittens should hire a team of comedy writers. A couple good jokes might make him seem like an ordinary, American, friendly, narcissistic politician-entertainer kind of guy.

From the article: "Of all the candidates who have sought the Republican presidential nomination, none – except, perhaps, Ron Paul – has kept his team of top strategists as insular as Santorum."

The entire reason for this article seems to be that Santorum has a tight-nit group at the top, and they DON'T leak to the press. All right, let's talk about the things that REALLY matter.

1. The national debt has grown to $15.5 TRILLION dollars on Obama's watch, and he CONTINUES to offer up debt-laden budgets that are so laughable that they are shot down by large margins in the House and Senate! That's $137,000 of debt per taxpayer!!!

What are they doing to our children's chances at ANY sort of prosperity?

2. President Obama REJECTED the Keystone pipeline, while using TAXPAYER MONEY to subsidize foreign drilling operations, most notably in Brazil! That's right, he's tranferring OUR money to his "green energy" buddies (not coinidentally, they are also some of his biggest bundlers), and sending other money to Brazil, rather than getting the HELL OUT OF THE WAY for American energy production!!!

Wouldn't you rather keep that money here in America? President Obama says--naaaah.

3. When you fill up your tank, and it costs you $88, thank president Obama! He's "got your back."